Hamilton denies Horner’s claim he approached Red Bull

ABU DHABI — Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has denied claims by Christian Horner that he contacted Red Bull earlier this year about the possibility of driving for the world champions.

A report in the Daily Mail quoted Horner as saying that an anonymous person from Hamilton’s management had contacted the possibility of the seven-time world champion joining Red Bull as Max Verstappen’s teammate.

Hamilton signed a two-year contract to stay at Mercedes in August while Verstappen won his third world title in October.

“We’ve had several conversations over the years regarding Lewis’ arrival,” Horner told the Daily Mail. “They have contacted us several times. Most recently, earlier this year, there was an investigation to see if there would be any interest.”

Asked if there was any truth to the story ahead of this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton told reporters: “I checked with everyone on my team and no one spoke to them. But they tried to contact us.”

Hamilton then explained how he missed a message from Horner earlier this year.

“Basically, I got my old phone back, which had my old number on it,” Hamilton said. “I turned it on and obviously hundreds of messages came in and I realized there was one from Christian [asking] to meet up and chat at the end of the season.

“At first I just answered him on my new phone, it was after a [race] weekend, it was quite late when I found the message, but it was from the beginning of the year, so it was months later. I just congratulated you on an amazing season and hope we can compete with you soon. Then he responded by repeating the same thing. »

Horner also claimed Hamilton had held discussions with Ferrari through its chairman John Elkann and suggested he may have also spoken with team principal Fred Vasseur.

“I know John very well,” Hamilton said. We met years ago in Google camp. I went to a Google camp in Sicily, and that’s where our friendship started and we’ve always stayed in touch.

“I have known Fred since 2005 and we have always had a very good relationship. We have spoken often since he was in Formula 1.

“Because after I left his team we talked all the time obviously when I was in his team, then I came to Formula 1, and you have less contact with the Formula 2 series.

“But since he came back, we met here, we traveled together with Toto. So it doesn’t go any further.”

When asked why Horner might make up a story about him, Hamilton added: “If you really think about it, there are a lot of people here who like to drop my name in a lot of conversations because they know it will make waves.

“And if you’re a little lonely and don’t get a lot of attention, this is the perfect thing to do, just mention my name.”

Hamilton is set to record his second consecutive season without a win this year after his Mercedes team, which won him six titles between 2014 and 2020, struggled to adapt to new F1 regulations introduced in 2022.

Red Bull has dominated the sport under the new rules, but Hamilton said he would be more satisfied with taking Mercedes back to the top rather than being parachuted into a winning team.

“I hope to sign [with Mercedes] “I showed my commitment to the team,” he said. “I think, let’s be real, every driver who races here dreams of being in the winning car. I think probably here in my younger days when I hadn’t had much success, maybe back in the day from McLaren, it would have been much more attractive.

“When I think just from a racing perspective and my perspective on things, which obviously showed when I joined this team, I enjoyed going from a more successful team to a team that hadn’t had success with the vision of growing and building with the team, because when we won, it was just a much better feeling.

“Even if every driver here looks at the Red Bull car and would love to drive that car, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t love to drive that car and find out how good it is, every driver would feel that way, I I feel like we’ve had a really tough couple of years, and if we work to beat this car, it’ll be a much better feeling than getting into the best car.

“I don’t think it would do much for me in the sense of getting into a car that has been the most dominant car of all time. Working with my team to build so that I can beat them, I think it would be better for me.” my legacy, that’s for sure.”

Hamilton added that he would have no problem being Verstappen’s teammate, despite their intense rivalry in 2021 when Hamilton lost the title to the Red Bull driver in the final race.

“I would be more than happy to race against Max in the same car,” he said. “That would be wonderful. I don’t think he wants me to be his teammate.”